A number of problems exist with respect to current filter assemblies.
For example, fine particle filters directly receiving the contaminated flow are susceptible to being clogged and/or damaged when large dust particles or aggregates or debris are present in the contaminated flow, which may require the filters to be changed before its filtration media is saturated by the fine contaminants. Moreover, hot debris may cause a fire hazard when received against some types of filtration material.
Moreover, in gaseous filters using adsorption media such as activated carbon, the concentration of gaseous contaminants to be filtered may be such that the volume of adsorption media required may be sufficiently heavy so as to become burdensome and/or dangerous to manipulate by a person without the assistance of additional people and/or lifting equipment. Accordingly, replacement of filter cartridges may cause significant maintenance costs and/or downtime.
In addition, most filter assembly blowers are mounted to the remainder of the filter assembly with hoses with clamps or seals and fastening systems to connect the flow of filtration air and cooling air which need to be channelled to the appropriate sections of the filter assembly, and retained using threaded fasteners pressing the blower casing against a compression seal. The fasteners typically require a specific torque to ensure proper sealing while preventing over-compression of the seals and/or crushing of the blower impeller enclosure. Accordingly, most filtration system blowers require a qualified technician to perform their removal or replacement, which may cause significant maintenance costs and downtime. Moreover, such requirements typically make it difficult or prohibitive to change the number of blowers used in the field when flow requirements change.
Further, the interaction between the blower(s) and a filter may cause preferential loading in the filter: the filter contamination is formed with a cone shape extending from the blower, thus causing premature saturation of the filtration media within the cone shape, which may decrease the useful life of the filter.